The United States of Greater Austria wrote:

UIJ wrote:Man, what?

You wouldn’t understand, so I don’t need to explain it.

I would describe my train of thought like trains travelling over a railroad that’s got this mile long gap in between; the trains that travel over that goddamned gap in the vain hope of reaching the set of railroads on the other side instantly derail. No matter how fast those trains are going, they will never, ever be able to reach the set of railroads.

Let’s get you some Adderall, kiddo

Neo-Western East Korea wrote:

UIJ wrote:Man, what?

I think it's a mass effect reference

I know like 3 things about mass effect and one is the excessive amount of “fanart” it has

The United States of Greater Austria wrote:

Yooper High Kingdom wrote:tbf, not everyone is a biologist or an artist. Trying to create an alien race "from scratch" without taking quite a few creative liberties (bipedal form, human-ish psychology, etc) is a daunting task tbh.

No, I mean like we sound too dependent on a bunch of aliens who are way too okay to coexist with us, and we are okay with coexisting with those aliens without a reason why they haven’t come in and genocided us just yet.

If we're going to be semantic - in the hardest of sci-fi settings, it is highly unlikely that there are any aliens that think and act even remotely similar to humans. In any case, we cannot reasonably assume anything about an alien civilization because they grew up in a literally alien climate. If something resembling civilization could arise at all on an alien planet, unless they lived on an utterly hellish planet where "kill first, ask questions later" is standard protocol (sound familiar?), I find it unlikely that "blow them up with expensive super weapons" would be the first option they'd choose.

tl;dr: no u, lemme have my hooshers

Yooper High Kingdom wrote:

The United States of Greater Austria wrote:No, I mean like we sound too dependent on a bunch of aliens who are way too okay to coexist with us, and we are okay with coexisting with those aliens without a reason why they haven’t come in and genocided us just yet.

If we're going to be semantic - in the hardest of sci-fi settings, it is highly unlikely that there are any aliens that think and act even remotely similar to humans. In any case, we cannot reasonably assume anything about an alien civilization because they grew up in a literally alien climate. If something resembling civilization could arise at all on an alien planet, unless they lived on an utterly hellish planet where "kill first, ask questions later" is standard protocol (sound familiar?), I find it unlikely that "blow them up with expensive super weapons" would be the first option they'd choose.

tl;dr: no u, lemme have my hooshers

well achutually hooshers are very non-human, and only some of them are actually bipedal, so far 9 of them walk on 4 or more legs pushes up glasses
and generally most of my aliens are very non human as well
Though I do make some things universal, like creating art, ie; creating things to create things
I did have another species that were pretty much humans that ended up wiping themselves out before the hooshers could get there, basically ended up killing each other in massive wars and ripped apart their planet to fuel them
basically what would happen to humanity if the Azavir didn’t intervene

anyways I’m off-topic rambling now so I’ll shut up

As far as FT goes, another cliche:

Nobody RPs the fact that every time they go into FTL travel, they are forever leaving everything they've ever known behind and when they emerge on the other side, everyone they knew who isn't also on the ship or traveling the same distance via FTL methods will be long, long dead, the country they came from quite possibly nonexistent, their language possibly extinct, the base of knowledge of their species advanced by centuries to millennia, and maybe even the star that their planet orbited around has collapsed, too. The reason they traveled so far might not even be relevant anymore.

Time dilation is a terrifying and depressing topic.

The Grand World Order wrote:As far as FT goes, another cliche:

Nobody RPs the fact that every time they go into FTL travel, they are forever leaving everything they've ever known behind and when they emerge on the other side, everyone they knew who isn't also on the ship or traveling the same distance via FTL methods will be long, long dead, the country they came from quite possibly nonexistent, their language possibly extinct, the base of knowledge of their species advanced by centuries to millennia, and maybe even the star that their planet orbited around has collapsed, too. The reason they traveled so far might not even be relevant anymore.

Time dilation is a terrifying and depressing topic.

don’t care physics can eat it I use instant wormholes for my FTL and disregard any supposed paradoxes
I already respect enough science I’m not going to bend any further

I rely on wormholes fucking up occasionally with time as the thing that supports them gets weaker thus throwing people in the middle of literal empty space or in face of an incoming horde of Khuraki
for the FTL based depression that is

Yooper High Kingdom wrote:If we're going to be semantic - in the hardest of sci-fi settings, it is highly unlikely that there are any aliens that think and act even remotely similar to humans.

Bwahahaha, that's why I chickened out broke conventions and made the Anhu human. It made sense to make the most of the zoo hypothesis and the inter-dimensional/time travel ufology scenarios even if my nation's pretty campy and not at all realistic. That and because I think most sci-fi aliens have a tendency to be idealized versions of humanity or exteriorized monstrous flaws of it and that they're egotistical psychological mirrors that regard.

I'll shut up about existential angst and the dangers of cosmic boredom now.

The Grand World Order wrote:As far as FT goes, another cliche:

Nobody RPs the fact that every time they go into FTL travel, they are forever leaving everything they've ever known behind and when they emerge on the other side, everyone they knew who isn't also on the ship or traveling the same distance via FTL methods will be long, long dead, the country they came from quite possibly nonexistent, their language possibly extinct, the base of knowledge of their species advanced by centuries to millennia, and maybe even the star that their planet orbited around has collapsed, too. The reason they traveled so far might not even be relevant anymore.

Time dilation is a terrifying and depressing topic.

I mean, if we're being honest - the vast majority of 'proposed' FTL travels won't work at all even ignoring paradoxes/dilation. So if we're going to be depressingly Hard Sci, you might as well talk about the woes of being a person on a generation ship - never to see land and experience life outside of their confined metal tube in space.

The Saucer Pilots wrote:

Yooper High Kingdom wrote:If we're going to be semantic - in the hardest of sci-fi settings, it is highly unlikely that there are any aliens that think and act even remotely similar to humans.

Bwahahaha, that's why I chickened out broke conventions and made the Anhu human. It made sense to make the most of the zoo hypothesis and the inter-dimensional/time travel ufology scenarios even if my nation's pretty campy and not at all realistic. That and because I think most sci-fi aliens have a tendency to be idealized versions of humanity or exteriorized monstrous flaws of it and that they're egotistical psychological mirrors that regard.

I'll shut up about existential angst and the dangers of cosmic boredom now.

Honestly, I feel like most "aliens" are just our version of angels/fae/demons. Most are either idolized versions of human society or take everything the writer finds disgusting and throws them into a pit. (Take how many hiveminds are vague references to communism/monarchism, or how star trek literally has an empire just called "Romulan Empire")

Yooper High Kingdom wrote:

The Grand World Order wrote:As far as FT goes, another cliche:

Nobody RPs the fact that every time they go into FTL travel, they are forever leaving everything they've ever known behind and when they emerge on the other side, everyone they knew who isn't also on the ship or traveling the same distance via FTL methods will be long, long dead, the country they came from quite possibly nonexistent, their language possibly extinct, the base of knowledge of their species advanced by centuries to millennia, and maybe even the star that their planet orbited around has collapsed, too. The reason they traveled so far might not even be relevant anymore.

Time dilation is a terrifying and depressing topic.

I mean, if we're being honest - the vast majority of 'proposed' FTL travels won't work at all even ignoring paradoxes. So if we're going to be depressingly Hard Sci, you might as well talk about the woes of being a person on a generation ship - never to see land and experience life outside of their confined metal tube in space.

Bah, give em some of the green stuff that’ll keep em happy

UIJ wrote:

Yooper High Kingdom wrote:I mean, if we're being honest - the vast majority of 'proposed' FTL travels won't work at all even ignoring paradoxes. So if we're going to be depressingly Hard Sci, you might as well talk about the woes of being a person on a generation ship - never to see land and experience life outside of their confined metal tube in space.

Bah, give em some of the green stuff that’ll keep em happy

Fuck yeah man, imagine hotboxing a spaceship.

Yooper High Kingdom wrote:

UIJ wrote:Bah, give em some of the green stuff that’ll keep em happy

Fuck yeah man, imagine hotboxing a spaceship.

How do you think they get the spaceship hooshers high?

Not enough girlbossin in the forums

Yooper High Kingdom wrote:Honestly, I feel like most "aliens" are just our version of angels/fae/demons. Most are either idolized versions of human society or take everything the writer finds disgusting and throws them into a pit. (Take how many hiveminds are vague references to communism/monarchism, or how star trek literally has an empire just called "Romulan Empire")

Even among ufology's circles, you can tell how pop culture tends to show its influences. For example, before the 80s, the way supposed abductees/contactees described aliens was varied, with Brits in particular clinging onto elves and fae-like beings. When abduction literature became mainstreamed, suddenly everyone worldwide began to report Greys.

Gonswanza wrote:Why did you make em so cute tho.

So I can plan to make their robots and androids creepy to balance it out. That and because the cuter I make my nations' inhabitants, the greater their destructive potential is. Seems to be almost a running gag with me.

Yooper High Kingdom wrote:

UIJ wrote:Bah, give em some of the green stuff that’ll keep em happy

Fuck yeah man, imagine hotboxing a spaceship.

virtual marijuana would go hard

The African Emirates wrote:

Yooper High Kingdom wrote:Fuck yeah man, imagine hotboxing a spaceship.

virtual marijuana would go hard

Shhh, don’t give them ideas.

An addendum to my point on time dilation: even sub-FTL, it becomes an issue at relativistic speeds. Even at my work, time dilation is an issue as we deal with very sensitive equipment aboard satellites, and that's mostly because of gravitational effects rather than speed.

The Grand World Order wrote:An addendum to my point on time dilation: even sub-FTL, it becomes an issue at relativistic speeds. Even at my work, time dilation is an issue as we deal with very sensitive equipment aboard satellites, and that's mostly because of gravitational effects rather than speed.

A simple solution: Just become robots so you don't age

The African Emirates wrote:A simple solution: Just become robots so you don't age

do we have to convert in front of a beth din of three robots, or...?

Or be a species of timeless immortas that are also temporally non-linear

It is now safe to keep playing.

South Reinkalistan wrote:

The Grand World Order wrote:As far as FT goes, another cliche:

Nobody RPs the fact that every time they go into FTL travel, they are forever leaving everything they've ever known behind and when they emerge on the other side, everyone they knew who isn't also on the ship or traveling the same distance via FTL methods will be long, long dead, the country they came from quite possibly nonexistent, their language possibly extinct, the base of knowledge of their species advanced by centuries to millennia, and maybe even the star that their planet orbited around has collapsed, too. The reason they traveled so far might not even be relevant anymore.

Time dilation is a terrifying and depressing topic.

Todd Howard approach for my FT setting. "It just works." Time dilation sucks when you're trying to make a star-state, so fucking void it.

Why restrain yourself with realism when your FT space empire is run like a traditional state when we'd likely see supranational organizations at best even with FTL?

Wormfodder Delivery wrote:Or be a species of timeless immortas that are also temporally non-linear

How about robotic timeless immortals on a temporally non-linear plane? AKA the Wormiratian Delivery Service

The African Emirates wrote:

Wormfodder Delivery wrote:Or be a species of timeless immortas that are also temporally non-linear

How about robotic timeless immortals on a temporally non-linear plane? AKA the Wormiratian Delivery Service

Naah, there were some incidents with machines and Wormfodder in the past.
Couldn't stop analyzing it and had some weird consequences.

It is now safe to keep playing.

Wormfodder Delivery wrote:

The African Emirates wrote:
How about robotic timeless immortals on a temporally non-linear plane? AKA the Wormiratian Delivery Service

Naah, there were some incidents with machines and Wormfodder in the past.
Couldn't stop analyzing it and had some weird consequences.

"Boss, please stop staring at Ernest. He's not even real."